Sundar C.
Sundar at Muthina Kathirikai Audio Launch
Born	Vinayagar Sundar Vel (1968-01-21) 21 January 1968 (age 56) Erode, Madras State, India,[1] (present day Erode, Tamil Nadu, India
Occupations	Film director Actor Film producer Screenwriter
Years active	1990–present
Spouse	Khushbu ​ (m. 2000)​ [2]
Children	2

Vinayagar Sundar Vel, known professionally as Sundar C., is an Indian film director, actor and producer. He has directed over 34 films in Tamil and acted in 17 movies as the protagonist. He remains one of the most successful and most wanted director in the Industry for the last 3 decades.

His notable films include Ullathai Allitha, Arunachalam, Unnai Thedi, Anbe Sivam, Winner, Giri, Kalakalappu, Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru, Aranmanai, Aambala, Aranmanai 2, Action, Kalakalappu 2, Aranmanai 3 and Coffee With Kadhal.

Sundar C is one of the few directors who directed Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan in Arunachalam and Anbe Sivam respectively.

He took a short break from direction, after his initial launch as an actor in 2006, with the film Thalai Nagaram, which became a commercial success.^[3][4] He returned to direction with his trade mark comedy roller coaster in the movie Kalakalappu in 2012 and it went on to become a success.

His successful career as a director continued with the 2014 Aranmanai film series.

He also produced the TV series Nandini (2017-2018), along with his wife ( the actress Khushbu) aired on Sun TV. He also produced movies like Hello Naan Pei Pesuren (2016), Meesaya Murukku (2017), Natpe Thunai (2019), Naan Sirithal (2020), Naanga Romba Busy (2020) and Pattampoochi (2022).

Career

Sundar C started his career as an assistant director to Manivannan and made his directorial debut with the movie Murai Maman (1995). Sundar revealed that he initially wanted a leading action hero to play the lead role in his film and approached Sarathkumar, but the producer was unable to sign the actor. Subsequently, the director chose Jayaram to play the lead role in the film and also said that he tapped into his innate sense of humour, as Jayaram was very famous for his humour in Malayalam.^[5] Murai Maman did well at the box office and Sundar went on to direct many humour themed films such as Ullathai Allitha (1996), Mettukudi (1996) and Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga (1999) with Karthik. In 1997, he directed his highest-profile project till date, Arunachalam, with Rajinikanth. He has also occasionally directed action and thriller films such as Unnai Kann Theduthey (2000), Rishi (2001) and Chinna (2005).^[6] His favourite heroine was actress Rambha; as a Director he made her as his lead heroine in his 6 movies.

In the late 1990s, Sundar C had a brief career slump, where several of his films became stuck or did not have a theatrical release. Projects including collaborations with Karthik in Athai Magan featuring Ramya Krishnan, Kadhal Solla Vanthen featuring Isha Koppikar, and Vaazhkkai Vaazhvatharkke were affected.^[7][8][9] Likewise, a proposed projects titled Paarvai with Jayaram and Khushbu, was also shelved.^[10][11]

In 2003, he directed two films Anbe Sivam and Winner. Winner was successful and the comedy scenes from that film became hugely popular. However, Anbe Sivam, despite being critically acclaimed, under performed at the box office, but became a cult classic. Anbe Sivam remains his only humane realism movie till today out of his regular commercial cinema genre.^[12] After directing Rendu (2006), Sundar took a break from directing in order to concentrate on his acting career. He made his acting debut as lead actor with Thalai Nagaram (2006), which was well received. Then he went on to play lead roles with the commercially successful Veerappu (2007), directed by Badri and Sandai (2008) by Sakthi Chidambaram. He then made a comeback as a director with Nagaram Marupakkam (2010).

In 2012, written and directed Madha Gaja Raja but the film remains unreleased. Following Kalakalappu in 2012, he directed film like Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru (2013), Aranmanai (2014), Aranmanai 2 (2016) and Kalakalappu 2 (2018). He acted in lead role in the horror thriller, Iruttu (2019) directed by V. Z. Durai. The film was released to positive reviews.^[13] And directed Vishal's film, Action (2019).^[14] His next release as a director and actor is Aranmanai 3, produced by Avni Cinemax , with his own production house. The film received negative reviews from critics, but becomes a box-office success, and marked as Hat-trick hit of his Aranmanai series.^[15] And he also signed a new film as an lead actor in Thalai Nagaram 2 with V. Z. Durai. A sequel to the successful film Thalai Nagaram (2006).^[16] Sundar also officially confirmed that he is going to make his fourth installment in Aranmanai series on 2023, will begin as Aranmanai 4.^[17]

Filmography

As an actor

As a director and writer

Year	Film	Credited as		Notes
		Director	Writer
1995	Murai Maman	Y	Y	Directional debut
	Murai Mappillai	Y	Y
1996	Ullathai Allitha	Y	Y
	Mettukudi	Y	Y
1997	Arunachalam	Y	N	Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film
	Janakiraman	Y	Y
1998	Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar	Y	Y
1999	Unnai Thedi	Y	Y
	Suyamvaram	Y	N	Directed by fourteen directors
	Unakkaga Ellam Unakkaga	Y	Y
2000	Azhagarsamy	Y	N
	Kannan Varuvaan	Y	Y
	Unnai Kann Theduthey	Y	Y
2001	Ullam Kollai Poguthae	Y	Y
	Rishi	Y	N
	Azhagana Naatkal	Y	Y
2003	Anbe Sivam	Y	N
	Winner	Y	Y
2004	Giri	Y	Y
2005	London	Y	N
	Thaka Thimi Tha	Y	N
	Chinna	Y	N
2006	Rendu	Y	Y
2010	Nagaram Marupakkam	Y	Y
2012	Kalakalappu	Y	Y	25th Film as a director; also narrator
2013	Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru	Y	Y	Partially reshot in Telugu as Something Something
2014	Aranmanai	Y	Y
2015	Aambala	Y	Y
2016	Aranmanai 2	Y	Y
2018	Kalakalappu 2	Y	Y
2019	Vantha Rajavathaan Varuven	Y	N
	Action	Y	Y
2021	Aranmanai 3	Y	Y
2022	Coffee With Kadhal	Y	Y
2024	Aranmanai 4 †	Y	Y	Completed 26th April 2024 release [42]

As a Singer

As a producer

Films

Television

Serials

Year	Serial	Credited as		Channel
		Producer	Writer
2017–2018	Nandini	Y	Y	Sun TV Udaya TV
2018	Maya	Y	Y	Sun TV
2018–2020	Lakshmi Stores	N	Y	Sun TV Gemini TV
2021	Jothi	Y	Y	Sun TV
TBA	Nandini 2	TBA	TBA	Sun TV

Shows